Conductor Paavo Järvi was named Gramophone magazine’s Artist of the Year at a ceremony in London this evening. Previous recipients include Leonidas Kavakos, Joseph Calleja, Gustavo Dudamel and Joyce DiDonato.
Presenting the award – voted for by audiences around the world – Gramophone’s Editor-in-Chief James Jolly described Järvi as “one of the most sought-after conductors of today, and one of the most recorded – an interpreter of imagination who brings something fresh to everything he tackles, a musician well worth listening to.”
Just days ago Järvi was presented the Sibelius Medal by Finland’s Ambassador during the opening concert of the Orchestre de Paris’s season at the Philharmonie – his final with them as Music Director. The partnership also received an ECHO Klassik Prize for their recording of works by Dutilleux on Erato, and will soon undertake a substantial European tour with cellist Sol Gabetta, as well as celebrating Arvo Part’s 80th birthday with an immersive weekend of Estonian music, which includes the world premiere of Erkki-Sven Tüür’s “Sow the Wind”.
Other highlights this autumn include Järvi’s first concerts as Chief Conductor of NHK Symphony Orchestra, and a complete cycle of Brahms symphonies with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen in Vienna along with concerts in Berlin, Vienna, Hamburg, Amsterdam and Paris.
Paavo Järvi’s extensive, award-winning discography includes complete cycles of symphonies by Beethoven and Schumann with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen. Future plans include Strauss tone poems with NHK Symphony Orchestra for Sony.
